Even though a renowned Scientist has predicted that an Apocalypse of unimaginable severity awaits us because of global warming, there is hope, and while several other scientists believe we may have already reached the "tipping point" - and we have if we don't take action very quickly on a global basis, there is hope, because Peace and Mitigating Climate Change can be far more profitable than war! There are rumors which I have verified that indicate a global peace initiative may be in the offing in the very near future, and it will be a non-political organization that will work to establish a global initiative to help bring about world peace and a plan to mitigate global warming which has an enormous potential to be effective once the entire global community becomes involved. I am not at liberty to delve further into that issue right now, but am stating that even as I'm writing, the efforts are being made to establish this forum of renowned scientists and peace activists and may offer our only means of achieving Peace and mitigating climate change - and they don't originate from the United States.
The UN report is sobering, however Professor James Lovelock, even though he predicts an Apocalypse if we fail to act, his report - albeit frightening, does offer a glimmer of hope and substantiates my thoughts when I wrote To Pursue Peace, We Must Understand And Study Our Past. It was through this article and feedback I received that I discovered a global initiative was in the early planning stages, and the article caught their attention, and while it was written in general terms, this one will be much more explicit and delve into what it will take to fight mankind's greatest threat since time began for human beings. My solution, which is not necessarily the one which will actually be the answer, is simply one of many that some of the greatest minds on this earth will be taking to task - and from their efforts, mankind does have hope, and while we cannot tame Mother Nature and reverse our past disregard of our planet and natural resources - working together we can actually make a difference, and the logic therein is inescapable! This is part of Professor Lovelock's hypothesis:
‘Climate Apocalypse Around the Corner’ says Renowned ScientistThe rapid warming of our planet is unstoppable and will be apocalyptic Professor James Lovelock said in a speech at the Royal Society in London, England 29th October 2007
An eminent and influential scientist, Lovelock first proposed the Gaia Hypothesis that the Earth as a single highly complex organism the 1970s. Now proven correct, Lovelock told the experts in attendance that “…now we are at war with the Earth and as in a blitzkrieg, events proceed faster than we can respond“.
He calculates that Earth’s average global temperature will shoot up an apocalyptic 6 degrees C when the atmosphere has 500 ppm of CO2 (carbon dioxide). At the current, accelerating rate of CO2 emissions that may come in as soon as 30 years but almost certainly before 2050. MUCH MORE
Why Peace Is Currently Unattainable
There are several factors that must change in order to bring about peace, and one of those is that mankind is again in a state of “heightened religiosity”, and that’s where looking to our past can be helpful in forming and positively impacting the future. People all over the world are frightened, and to be frank, they are well within their rights to be so; we have gone through these cycles before, and when the Black Plague struck civilization is an excellent example thereof; people didn’t understand what was happening, death was everywhere, so the lunatic fringe of organized religion stepped-in and made matters worse, doing exactly today what they did centuries ago – preying on peoples fear and using it to enrich themselves and force their own agenda on an unsuspecting population. The only cures to this disease is knowledge, widely disseminated, and hope – something that must be present in the human spirit to overcome anything that threatens life itself.
The other factor which is almost as bad is that several economies, our own included, are “war-based” economies – and the only way to entice the Russians, The United States, China, and several other nations to quit selling weapons throughout the world to support their military-industrial complex is to replace it with something else that is highly profitable – and that is what I propose we do.
I won’t mention the oil wars that are already beginning, which will be followed closely by water wars, both which have been predicted by many intellectuals – and they will be the most vicious and will have the potential to send the entire world spiraling into utter chaos and anarchy. We now stand on the precipice of total destruction, and only though the efforts of people with a vision for the future acting in concert on a global basis will that be attainable.
The concept of attaining peace on a global basis must be "sold" by professionals who understand that peace is a commodity, and in order to sell it, there must be profit, and features and benefits that apply to every inhabitant of this earth, human and otherwise. Can tackling the challenge of global warming be profitable? Absolutely! It takes money to make money, and while I do understand an initial investment will be necessary to fund the initial infrastructure of a non-profit organization, once it’s in place, which could occur very rapidly, then it’s time to begin “selling” a plan to mitigate the effects of global warming, and achieve peace through cooperation of the global community itself, but the positive “unintended consequences” of such a venture are truly mind-staggering!
Global Warming And What We Can Do To Mitigate Its Impact, And Work To Achieve Peace
Unfortunately, right now the media has concentrated their efforts on sensationalizing catastrophes, war, and politics - all which are counter-productive in any effort to mitigate global warming or work to achieve global peace. Doom and gloom sells newspapers and brings people by the droves to their televisions and radios to hear about the latest gang-rape, murder(s) earthquake, and threat to humanity via Bird Flu or conflict(s) which are developing at a pace that has never before been witnessed in our history. Again, the consequences of the Global News Media constantly devoting so much time on negativity actually exacerbates the sense of “religiosity” which is complicating efforts to diffuse several conflicts in the Middle-East. Everything is based on cause and effect – any by analyzing these events with an open-mind, we can easily see what the MSM is causing by their inability to understand how they are causing even more negative energy in the world rather than working to elevate the human spirit so we can face the challenges not as individual countries, but the bulk of humanity itself!
As I stated earlier, several learned scientists have stated we have passed “the tipping point” and now the effects of global warming cannot be halted. To some degree, they may be right, but speaking in terms of years or decades, I have no doubt what-so-ever that working together as a global community we can mitigate many of the worst effects of climate change – and it can be accomplished in a matter of years. Understanding our world and what makes it “tick” is all a rational “freethinker” needs to debunk their theories – and if you look at the situation logically, keeping cause and effect in mind, I am positive they are wrong - and that theory was substantiated by Professor Lovelock; Here are his "solutions" to the gigantic project we must address:
LINK1. Realize reducing our carbon footprint is not nearly enough.
2. Natural ecosystems must be preserved at all cost for they are the way in which the Earth regulates temperature.
3. Some farm land needs to revert to its natural state for the same reason.
4. Try some of those crazy geoengineering schemes to buy some time
5. Figure out how to adapt to the massive changes coming — one metre sea level rise, hundreds of millions of climate refugees, climates too hot to grow food.
Professor Lovelock's "solutions" were in generalities without stating an actual plan that could be implemented to alleviate our situation, and it is a viable course of action we need to achieve the goals he states are necessary to mitigate climate change - which in turn, will alleviate hunger, desperation, and the massive amount of deaths that climate change is predicted to cause. The world is running out of drinking water and the ability to irrigate crops in several areas of the world, causing food prices to rise, and it the poor and desperate in many nations that are lashing-out without hope of a brighter future that is adding to an uncertain future. Obviously, if we are to resolve these issues, the first matter on the agenda is to solve the issue of water for irrigation and human/animal consumption, and the only viable solution is huge desalinization plants on a scale that staggers the imagination.
Approximately 60% of the world’s desalinization plants are located in the Middle-East, the largest of which is the Jebel Ali Desalination Plant (Phase 2) in the United Arab Emirates. It is a dual-purpose facility that uses multi-stage flash distillation and is capable of producing 300 million cubic meters of water per year. (Source: Wikopedia) Desalinization plants, built on a massive scale will mitigate the effects of climate change if they are large enough, and unfortunately, must be nuclear powered to be effective; using fossil fuels for this purpose defeats their ultimate purpose, and although I’m against nuclear power plants, we have the technology to build them safely – and because we have been such poor stewards of earth’s precious resources, nuclear power is the only answer to run the massive plants that will be needed to impact climate change. Some of these nuclear powered desalinization plants will need to be dual-purpose, using nuclear power to operate the plant as well as generating electricity for the local population(s).
Imagine building hundreds of these, larger than that which is described above, and using/selling the water to massive farms that would be located in several key locations in Africa and other countries. (We may have to lease the land, adding to that countries income, not to mention the massive amount of labor that would be required to operate actual farm complexes, which would create even more income for those nations.) Imagine 500,000 or 1,000,000 acre commercial farms, built in tear-drop configurations so the wildlife can still co-exist and move around them as they would a mountain or other natural barrier. These farms would grow wheat, corn, soy and other essentials that could be sold worldwide and would contribute to price-drops in food on a global basis. The profit for water sales and the crops, a percentage of which would go to the host country would in the long term, pay for the construction and maintenance of the desalinization/power plants as heretofore described.
Consider the economic impact to Africa, and other third world nations where people are so poor they cannot fight the epidemics that plague their societies on their own and have to rely upon donations and the efforts of other global organizations that are helping to fight these health issues – but soon after reaping the profits from the leases and percentage of the crop sales, and the jobs which would be created could begin to change their "third world" status, and becoming a major exporter of essential crops, the economy and life in Africa and other suitable nations with huge tracts of arid, underdeveloped lands would change dramatically. The location of these "super farms" would be dictated by the scientific community based on the probability of them not being inundated by rising sea levels and other factors which include, but are not limited to mean temperature, suitability of the actual soil and terrain, among other factors.
While I’ll admit that desalinization plants will not be enough to stop the encroachment of our oceans upon low-lying cities and countries all over the globe, enough of these plants operating 24 hours per day will make an impact and help to mitigate the rise of our oceans everywhere, and again, another “cause and effect” will also occur – and it is an “intended consequence” that nature herself will accomplish. If we work to turn vast areas of Africa and other arid areas into productive farmland and send countless millions of gallons of water to irrigate them, some of the water will evaporate into the atmosphere and rain will begin to fall in areas which historically were dry and barren. The very face of the earth will begin to change, and with an abundant and inexpensive food supply being created, prosperity will begin to replace hunger and desperation.
Through sheer ignorance and greed, we are destroying approximately 2.7 MILLION ACRES OF RAINFOREST PER YEAR! Again, we come to the issue of cause and effect; vegetation of all types is the cleansing agent for our atmosphere, and the destruction of these rainforests is reducing earth’s ability to produce oxygen and possibly even of more importance – reduce the levels of carbon dioxide in our air. If we “green-up” vast areas of our earth with productive farmlands, it will help to mitigate some of the rainforest loss, the staggering loss of forests in the US which have been burnt because of drought conditions and ultimately, will help to eventually cleanse the atmosphere. The logic is inescapable – but plans of this sort will only have an impact if they are carried out on a massive scale.
The US is experiencing one, if not the worst drought in its history, and rather than us working to mitigate these issues, we also choose to spend our dwindling wealth on war rather than peace. The drought was so severe this year that crops of all sorts are significantly lower than usual, and food prices are skyrocketing because of improper government management. We all knew that climate change was coming; however politics and greed influenced our decisions to disregard sound scientific evidence and instead, chose to tow the “corporate line” rather than attend to the heath and welfare of our own country.
We have learned an extremely important lesson from China, and as they have expanded their agriculture and used fertilizers that were harmful to the environment, their foods are actually contaminated and many of their food products are in fact dangerous as it pertains to human consumption. If we choose to learn from their plight, it should spur industry to develop safer methods of fertilizing the crops, and another segment of many nation's industries will benefit and profit from supplying these important ingredients to agriculture in new farmlands that will arise – and again, business will profit from the expansion of the world’s new-found food supplies.
Those nations whose economies are based on developing and manufacturing the tools of war will be able to amass huge contracts for building these essential desalinization plants, and instead of relying on war to drive their economies, they will find it more profitable to engage in building the tools we need to mitigate climate change. This danger to our survival as a species cannot be accomplished by one "Super-Power" or even two, but the cooperation of all of the industrialized nations of the world, and in doing so, jobs and profit will be created by applying their technical knowledge and expertise to build the tools we need to mitigate the climate change crisis, and each and every country which is involved will reap the benefits of a wealth of high-tech jobs as well as the thousands of support industries that would also spring-up to supply the parts and pieces that will be necessary to begin reversing what we have foolishly done to our home, Mother Earth. It's no secret that the United States, my home, is close to financial collapse from fighting endless wars, and as one of the nations that has much of the world's nuclear and high-tech expertise, our economic woes as well as other nations would be solved relatively quickly as the contracts and jobs begin rolling back into our own country and those who also have the expertise to contribute to such a massive project.
We also have to raise the awareness of the necessity of reducing our dependence on fossil fuels, and manufacturing and deploying massive wind-farms will help in that matter, and in the areas that are poor and underdeveloped, wind power could bring electricity to millions, enhancing their lives and allowing them to become residents of the 20th century rather than living in the past, which progressively becomes harder to do as we witness the world changing so rapidly. We have learned that "terrorists" are born from despair, flocking to the radical religious recruiters who offer them food and shelter, and then indoctrinate them with radicalism to create the soldiers of Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations. Abundant food, water, and hope of a better life will help to drain the armies of terrorism from gaining new recruits, thus helping to quash the rise of radical Islam.
It will be necessary to enlist the aid of the global community to drive less, and on days off, choose to stay home, or at least remain closer than they usually do for recreation and rest. It is imperative that the global community manage the oil we have left and conservation, taken seriously by the global community, will cause a huge drop in the price of oil, again alleviating the high costs of heating and cooling our homes as well as the burden these current prices cost everyone for commuting to work.
Financing
It’s obvious that this endeavor will require huge amounts of money, and that’s where the World Bank comes in, and as long as it’s structured in a way that we know there will be a return on their investment in real dollars, it can be done, although it will take a unified global approach to make it happen. We have to be realistic and understand that no one is going to expend the money and energy necessary to bring forth a global effort that dwarfs anything mankind has ever attempted unless it’s profitable and benefits everyone, not just a few singular nations. As we discussed, it is not a political endeavor, but a fight to alleviate the suffering, death, starvation, and utter chaos that will occur if we don’t work to make it happen.
Why Do We Need A Separate Global Peace Movement Other Than The United Nations?
While I commend the United Nations for their work in helping to awaken the world to the danger that mankind faces in this hour of crisis due to global warming and the consequences thereof, the UN, by its very nature, is a highly charged "political" body, and members vote the interests of their own countries first, often protecting their own national interests at the expense of the global community. The solution and planning to mitigate climate change and seek to replace war with peace cannot be based on politics, but must represent the interests of the world at large - and to effectively plan and awaken the world for the need to establish a global initiative which is not politically motivated, it must be a body of individuals that cast politics aside and attend to the health and welfare of the world, not individual nations.
There's no question that once a solution is formulated and this body of intellectuals and peace activists has reached a viable solution to ward off, or at least stall climate change, the UN will be called upon to help implement the actual plans and mechanics to make it happen, but until then, it will take envoys from this coalition visiting every nation on earth and as they do, work to gain the support of the people of the world and offer them hope and a chance to save themselves and their children and grandchildren from the Apocalypse that our scientists have predicted. Knowledge and dissemination of this project to save mankind, or at least add a century or two to what may be our eventual demise is tantamount to garner the support of the global community - and when the global community is educated to understand that they present the only viable solution to mitigate the coming disaster, people worldwide will be seeking to influence their individual governments to sign-on to peace rather than war, and when people are made to understand that it's their only hope of survival - then and only then will it be ready to be implemented by a United Nations that will understand that the people of the world will not allow politics to interfere with their survival.
What Will It Take To Get It Started
People far smarter than I are working to start the framework of this organization, however, when it is announced and in its infancy, they will be calling upon those who the world respects to endorse and help to influence others to sign-on to this project. I am addressing the people who have tirelessly spear-headed the fight against AIDS, hunger, and issues that many countries often turn a blind eye to, or support only because it's "politically correct" to do so; they will be calling upon world leaders, celebrities, and the philanthropists who the world knows and respects, some who have more respect than many of our current governments. You know who you are, and soon, the world community will need your support - and with your endorsements and help, we can make this happen. A worldwide effort is the only solution that will work, and while I admit it dwarfs even our journey to the moon and other such endeavors in the enormity of the project, this time it's literally a matter of life or death. I believe in the human spirit to survive, not just the wealthy and affluent, but the world in general - and to accomplish this task, "hope" and the ideology of a better life is what will make this happen, so please, when you're called upon, support this movement and use your influence to change the heart and minds of others who may be less optimistic than we are - and help the world to save itself.
William Cormier
Footnote: The above extrapolation of a possible solution to this horror we call global warming and war is only one of many which will eventually emerge, and while there is volumes of information and details that are not even referenced in this small glimpse into what we could do to bring forth peace and mitigate climate change, the basic theory is sound, while the many details and other pertinent data and details are far above my limited expertise. I was not supposed to release any information in regard this issue right now, as it’s in the beginning stages of development; several factors caused me to bring this matter to the world’s attention now rather than later, and as we hear the rumblings of war, and hear about the possible collapse of the American economy, I believed in my heart that to begin this fight for our lives, instilling hope and the possibility of a brighter future than what we think we are facing is necessary to help mankind to think twice before starting more wars – and hopefully, this small glimpse into what is possible with the unity of the global community will help to stop some of those who are making rash decisions at this very moment because they see no future, and as bad as things are, even I could find myself homeless in a matter of weeks – so I felt it was important to release this glimmer of hope that could turn into a brighter future for all.
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"The whisper becomes louder, then a voice is heard, and then crowds of voices, and eventually the whisper becomes the roar of change!" wjc
